The Desktop SSHD family has models with 1 TB, 2 TB, and 4 TB capacities. All of them use the 3.5” form factor, but the 1 TB model is 0.79” (20.1 mm) thick, while the 2 TB and 4 TB have a height of 1.03” (26.1 mm).

A hybrid disk drive is actually a hard disk drive with a built-in non-volatile cache. The idea is the same as the Intel Smart Response Technology: using a flash memory to cache the most frequently accessed data.

The Seagate Desktop SSHD 2 TB (ST2000DX001) is a 2 TB, 7.200 rpm hard drive, with 8 GiB of MLC flash memory as its “SSD portion” and 64 MiB of volatile cache. The drive uses an adaptive algorithm to “learn” the most accessed files and write them in the flash memory, so the true speed gain will be noticeable only after a few times of accessing the file. The main benefit is, of course, the reduction of the operating system boot time, since the files needed at the boot initiation will be the most likely to be cached, as well as frequently launched programs.

In our tests, we will be comparing the Seagate Desktop SSHD 2 TB to a traditional hard disk drive with similar characteristics, the Seagate Barracuda 2 TB. In the table below, we will compare the basic specifications of these products.

Manufacturer

Model

Model #

Rotational Speed

Interface

Buffer

Capacity

Price*

Seagate

Desktop HDD

ST2000DX001

7,200 rpm

SATA-600

64 MiB

2 TB

USD 120

Seagate

Barracuda

ST2000DM001

7,200 rpm

SATA-600

64 MiB

2 TB

USD 88

* All prices were researched at Newegg.com on the day we published this review.